India's foreign exchange reserves surged by a healthy $2.788 billion to $343.2 billion in the week to April 17.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday met IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva and discussed a range of issues, including impact of geopolitical situation on global growth.
Country's foreign exchange reserves dropped by $2.063 billion to $ 335.729 billion in the week to March 13.
India's deployment of a direct cash transfer scheme and other similar social welfare programmes is a "logistical marvel", the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Wednesday. "From India, there is a lot to learn. There is a lot to learn from some other examples around the world. "We have examples from pretty much every continent and every level of income. "If I look at the case of India, it is actually quite impressive," Paolo Mauro, deputy director of the Fiscal Affairs Department at the IMF, told reporters at a news conference in Washington.
The country's foreign exchange reserves crossed the $600 billion mark for the first time after increasing by $6.842 billion in the week ended June 4, RBI data showed on Friday. The reserves surged to a record $605.008 billion in the reporting week, helped by a rise in foreign currency assets (FCA), a major component of the overall reserves, as per weekly data by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). In the previous week ended May 28, 2021, the reserves had swelled by $5.271 billion to $598.165 billion.
Gold reserves in the reporting week increased by $707 million to $33.52 billion.
Citing details of the contract from the American Federal Procurement Data System, the BBC report claimed that Pakistan signed two contracts with American companies named "Global Military" and "Northrop Grumman" for the sale of 155mm shells.
A statement from the finance ministry said, 'it shall be the policy of the Sri Lankan government to suspend normal debt servicing...shall apply to amounts of affected debts outstanding on April 12, 2022'.
Foreign currency assets, a major component of the overall reserves, rose by $1.404 billion to $338.897 billion in the reporting week
The reserves nearing $ 428 billion can take care of imports for almost 10 months, according to market experts.
Of the eight RBI governors who have held office since the 1991 economic liberalisation, Bimal Jalan had the longest stint and S Venkitaramanan, the shortest. Current Governor Shaktikanta Das will overtake Bimal Jalan before completing his second term in December, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The marginal decline in reserves was on account of fall in foreign currency assets
International Monetary Fund Chief Economist Gita Gopinath tells Indivjal Dhasmana high-frequency indicators for the third quarter of 2021 indicate momentum in economic recovery in India.
'If you look at the order books of capital equipment companies or money deployed on the ground, there is forward movement in terms of actual investment by the private sector.'
India needs to strengthen its economic growth, says IMF.
Foreign currency assets rose $1.569 billion to $329.58 billion
The next annual budget of India will have to be very carefully structured to sustain the country's growth momentum, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday, noting that it will also address inflation concerns. Visiting Washington DC to attend the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, the finance minister was responding to a question on the next year's Budget at a fire-side chat with eminent economist Eshwar Prasad at the prestigious Brookings Institute. "Specifics (of the next Budget) may be difficult at this stage because it's a bit too early. "But broadly, the growth priorities will be kept absolutely on the top. "Even as I speak about the concerns that inflation brings before me. So, inflation concerns will have to be addressed. "But then how would you manage growth would be the natural question," Sitharaman said.
The reserves had touched a life-time high of $426.028 billion in the week to April 13, 2018.
Five Indian-origin women executives have made it to Barron's prestigious annual '100 Most Influential Women in US Finance' list for achieving positions of prominence in the financial services industry and helping shape its future. Barron's is a sister publication of the Wall Street Journal, published by Dow Jones and Company. "The list honours established and emerging leaders in financial services, the corporate world, nonprofit organisations, and government," the magazine said in a press release.
The foreign exchange kitty had crossed the half-a-trillion mark for the first time in the week ended June 5, 2020, after it had swelled by $8.223 billion to stand at $501.703 billion.
Enforcement Directorate officials said on Friday they are probing a 'complex network' of agents and facilitators in India, Canada and the US who help Indians illegally enter the US via 'bogus' admissions in Canadian colleges.
The reserves had jumped $2.03 billion to $277.38 billion in the previous week.
While the Reserve Bank and the Economic Survey of the finance ministry have projected India to grow at 6.9 per cent and 6.5 per cent in current fiscal, the International Monetary Fund estimates it to be 6.6 per cent.
Rise in reserves was predominantly on account of increase in FCAs
Keen to capitalise on the growing geopolitical support from African nations after the recently concluded G20 Summit, India is working with the African Union to hold the fourth India-Africa Forum Summit later this year in Kenya's Nairobi, sources said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to attend the mega meet along with as many as 50 African leaders, they added. First held in New Delhi in 2008, the India-Africa Forum Summit marked India's initial diplomatic efforts to seek a comprehensive partnership with the African bloc of nations as a whole, at a time when China had begun its own outreach.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan says global markets are at risk of a "crash" should investors start bailing out of risky assets created by the loose monetary policies of developed economies.
The reserves had touched an all-time high of $367.16 billion previously
Gold reserves declined by $346.2 million.
Foreign currency assets increase by $3.902 billion
The NSE Nifty closed lower by 32.15 points, or 0.32 per cent, at 9,984.80.
India's decision to ban the export of non-basmati white rice has pushed up global prices, prompting multilateral lending agencies, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to call for a reconsideration of the move. Though nothing has been spelled out yet officially, sources said, the government might consider requests for government-to-government sale of non-basmati white rice, especially to West African nations where India is a major supplier. Also, traders and exporters of specialty regional rice varieties like sona masuri or gobindo bhog feel that they have been short-changed.
Foreign exchange reserves have hit a fresh high.
Extreme poverty in India declined by 12.3 percentage points between 2011 and 2019, with rural areas doing better than urban centres, according to a working paper of the World Bank. India has not released a new household consumption survey since the NSS from 2011. By extension, the country has not released any official estimates of poverty and inequality for over a decade now, added the paper co-authored by economists Sutirtha Sinha Roy and Roy van der Weide.
Pakistan is on the verge of strong action by FATF, given its inadequate performance, whereby it managed to pass in only six of 27 items, an official privy to the development said.
The international community counts a lot on India's leadership of the G-20 at a time when the world is faced with the continued economic slowdown and social distress, the chief of the International Monetary Fund Kristalina Georgieva has said. "India, which is the president of G-20 countries, remains among the countries that perform better than the global average and by a good percentage," IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva told reporters during a media roundtable on Thursday. India formally assumed the G20 (Group of 20) Presidency on December 1.
Reserves had touched an all-time high of $355.46 billion in the week to June 19.
A continued focus on low inflation will be important to keeping gold imports, IMF said.
Gita Gopinath, the IMF's Indian-American chief economist has been promoted as its First Deputy Managing Director recognising her exceptional intellectual leadership in helping the global economy and the Fund to navigate the "twists and turns" of the "worst economic crisis of our lives". Gopinath would replace Geoffrey Okamoto who plans to leave the International Monetary Fund early next year, Kristalina Georgieva, IMF's managing director announced on Thursday. Gopinath, who was scheduled to return to her academic position at Harvard University in January 2022, has decided to stay, she said. Gopinath, 49, has served as the first female chief economist of the Washington-based global lender for three years.
Notably, Ukrainian forces disabling bridges across the Dnipro river and attacking Russian supply lines made it very difficult for Russia to defend the occupied territory.
In the previous week, total reserves dropped by $273.8 million to $312.382 billion.
